Les bijoutiers du clair de lune

It is difficult to find a point of interest in this film except if you are a male looking for a scantily clad Bardot or interested in watching the miserable way of life in south Spain during Franco's period. Spanish most poor gypsies lived in sacromonte, near Granada, in caves dug in the rock because they couldn't even afford to live in a shanty. Rural southern Spain was a combination of misery and illiteracy where only the local cacique had things like running water or electricity. In this context is set this movie, where a girl just released from a convent and without a bit of shyness arrives to join their uncles. Miss Bardot's brat dumb character is so infamously used to exploit her anathomy at the slightest opportunity that it cringes to say the least. Although mr. Boyd's character is not far behind in terms of silliness. What else to say except that best acting - if that means a thing in a film like this- comes from totally wasted Alida Valli, Stephen Boyd (Messala, where are you?) and - in a brief appearance- Fernando Rey (miles away from French Connection) who do the best they can with the poor material they are given. All in all, a movie made to the greater glory of miss Bardot that does not deserve a watching.

Although this movie has much to do with the Spanish sense of pride and honor, its real issue is a fierce competition between the beauty of Brigitte Bardot and that of the landscape of Southern Spain. As Bardot's performance is pretty uninspired here, this time the scenery wins.

'Les bijoutiers du clair de lune' makes good watching for its enjoyable shots. As for Bardot, she certainly did better in other movies.

This 1958 "boy-meets-girl" romantic-drama is a completely contrived "Roger Vadim" production where (as expected) Vadim takes every opportunity imaginable to parade his wife at the time (actress, Brigitte Bardot) in as little clothing as possible. (Va-Voom!)

This French production also stars Irish macho-man, actor, Stephen Boyd who gives it his best shot in his futile attempt to project as much masculine sexuality as possible (trying, of course, to keep on par with the sensually smoldering Bardot).

I honestly have to tell you that I found "The Night Heaven Fell" to be quite a peculiar movie-experience where a lot of the serious situations actually came across as being unintentionally laughable, while, on the other hand, much if the intentionally humorous moments failed to produce even the slight chuckle from me at all.

In 1956, Roger Vadim made a sensational debut as a motion picture director with 'And God Created Woman', a daringly erotic film that challenged conventional views of romanticism... Vadim presented the nude body of his young wife, Brigitte Bardot, in all the splendor of CinemaScope with beautiful Technicolor photography...

Along with Francois Truffaut, Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Demy and Agnes Varda, Vadim was one of the founding members of the revolutionary French New Wave, to push the sexual archetype...

His subsequent films revealed him to be an accomplished European filmmaker with an eye for visual beauty and decorative elegance, but in content, his films have often been superficial and lacking in narrative strength... Sexual relations have been a recurrent theme in his films, the plot of which have often revolved around the undisputed beauty of his succession of wives - Brigitte Bardot, Annette Stroyberg, and Jane Fonda...

"The Night Heaven Fell" is the second collaboration between Vadim and Bardot... Vadim seems to have attempted to recapture the freshness and essence of the 'B.B.' he had helped to shape, but the re-creation escaped him, despite the careful choice of Albert Vidalie's novel and the casting of Stephen Boyd as leading man...

Bardot's innocently natural mannerisms had disappeared, and it seemed that she no longer needed Vadim to make use of her talents as an accomplished actress... Claude Autant-Lara succeeded much more with his film, 'Love Is My Profession,' playing Brigitte opposite Jean Gabin and Edwige Feuillere... Bardot came off as more than a sexual image, her persona giving life to the character she portrayed...

Filmed in Franco's Spain, "The Night Heaven Fell" is a sunburned film noir, beautifully photographed in Color and CinemaScope...

Bardot plays Ursula, a beautiful convent girl vacationing in a small village in rural Spain where her patient and passive Aunt Florentine and her rude uncle, the Count Ribera (Pepe Nieto), live... Upon her arrival, she's hunted by the handsome and forceful Lamberto (Stephen Boyd), who's looking to avenge the death of his poor sister...

The sexually repressed Florentine desires intensely Lamberto who kills her husband, seduces her, and escapes with her rebellious, capricious and highly provocative niece Ursula...

The air of harshness is at the heat of all of the main characters: Ursula's challenging sexuality; Count Ribera's lecherous advances; Lamberto's acts of vengeance; and most of all, the unusual beauty and natural charm of Florentine, played by the great Italian actress Alida Valli, from Carol Reed's The Third Man.

There's a scene in the film that takes place during the Count's funeral where we see Alida Valli stopping in the village streets and a veil covers her face... In front of Boyd, she takes off her dark veil, and stares, in silence, at his face... Her new feminist disposition was loading all her unconscious feelings...

In the fifties, Bardot emerged as a new type of sex symbol, flashing her sexual exuberance... Her performances as a child of nature responding to the call of sensuality, were a deliciously strange elixir to all of us growing up in that time...

Clothed in a breakaway towel, décolletage, bathing suits, or nude, this truly luscious coquette was enough to drive us into a kaleidoscope of dynamic excitement...

This is by far my favorite Brigitte Bardot movie! I love the Spanish scenery, I love her costumes, love the pulp-fiction semi-exploitation which Vadim teases us with, and I love Bardot's chemistry with Stephen Boyd (Ben Hur's 'Messala'). They make an absolutely sizzling screen pair together, and they look gorgeous. Boyd was one of her few English speaking co-stars (the first since Dirk Bogarde in 'Doctor at Sea', in fact). Boyd is like a hot-tempered bull in this. Even though he is dubbed, it doesn't detract from his performance. His muscular physique adds to the tension between himself and Bardot, who matches his intensity. Vadim's movies are always fun to watch, but I like the one in particular. It's just a sexy movie. He has a great way of directing Bardot and bringing out her best characteristics. Alida Valli is great as the seduced, then spurned woman. Can't ask for better entertainment in my opinion.